Another Weekend is upon us

Well, it's Friday again.  If time keeps moving this fast, I'll be retiring sooner than expected and can devote a lot more time to my quilting passion.  But until then ...  Didn't accomplish much this week except I did finish appliquing the pumpkin seeds onto the 12" blocks.  I'm trimming then now and will wait until my next visit with Megan to lay them out in the order she wants.  We have to make sure the same fabrics never touch :)

Good news on the monetary front.  Uncle Sam will be giving us some of our tax money back.  Hurrah!!  We just never know if the tax news will be good or bad.  Well, since it's good new, we bought a new 32" flat screen TV last night to replace the dinosaur TV in my sewing area.  The cable guy (I don't think it will be Larry) is coming out in the morning to bring our new receiver, so we will get the HD channels.  I'm sure happy because Cardinal baseball is just around the corner, not to mention March Madness.  Nothing like a good Cardinal ballgame or "the road to the Final Four" game to keep me company while I'm sewing. 

So I'm thinking on Saturday, I'll do some much needed reorganizing down in my area to get it looking rather spiffy (is that a word?).  I'll post photos when it's accomplished, but it might be a while.

My next planned project is a table runner for my daughter-in-law Jennifer's birthday.  I have the fabric picked out, just need to plot and plan the pattern.  Her birthday is next Wednesday next week so needless to say, her gift will be late.  Good thing I remembered to send her card this past week.

Update on CLFFF

I had a rather productive weekend also pertaining to my CLFFF.  First, I sold some of the fabric  to a lady from the QB.  She wanted some inexpensive fabric to make children's quilts so I sent her photos of things I would sell and she purchased 17 yards.  It went out in the mail on Saturday.  I don't mind parting with some of it ....

At the end of the day Sunday, the guest room is almost back to normal.  We did some more sorting and putting things in tubs.  I have a HUGE tub of planned projects.  I washed all the fabric included with the kits and now I actually think I am finished sorting and can move onto some actual sewing.  I'm quite excited to be able to start using some of my new fabric.

Megan's first quilt

She did it!! All before she went home, at it looks awesome.  She did a fabulous job from start to finish and I'm so very proud of her.  Here's some photos from our day.

Megan sandwiching the quilt

Concentrating very hard to get the meandering just right.

The finished product.

We had a very productive day.  The Baby Lock Decorator's Choice works well.  Megan went home with yet more fabric, her new machine and another sandwiched top ... I'm sure she is anxious to keep quilting. 



Flannel

I am almost finished with airing out/drying/getting rid of the smoke smell from my CLFFF.  It is a really great weekend and I've draped the flannel over the deck railing to let it air out.  Works wonderfully!!  However, I'm not sure the neighbors are pleased :).  A few more yards to go today and I'll be finished!!  I got my spare room upstairs cleared out so Megan could sleep upstairs last night.  However, the guest room downstairs is another issue.  I only have about 10 days to get it in shape before my sister and niece visit.  Yikes!! I better quit sewing and start cleaning. 

As far as sewing/quilting this weekend, I put the binding on three small quilts!!  Now they are finished, ready for the photo shoot and then sent to their respective new owners.  More on that later.  I'm also working diligently on getting the pumpkin seeds appliqued onto their squares.  15 down and 27 to go ... slow process, but I'm keeping at it!! 

In just a few minutes, I'm going to show Megan how to quilt from start to finish.  She pieced a small square block quilts before Christmas and now we're going to sandwich it, quilt it and bind it - all before she goes home today and all on her new machine.  It works like a charm.  I'll post a photo later.  So, I better get off this computer and get busy!!

NEW SEWING MACHINE

I was finally able to pick up the Baby Lock Decorator's Choice sewing machine I purchased for Megan's birthday.  It looks to be a good machine.  I only had a few minutes to try it out last night, but the light works and it does sew.  I think it will do a lot of things, but not having a manual limited me on trying it out.  Hopefully the shop will be able to produce a manual by the end of the week so I do not have to download and print a 150 page manual.  I hope to be able to try it out before Megan comes to pick it up on Saturday.  It's a nice looking machine and came with an extension table.  I do think it meets 99% of the requirements I had in purchasing a machien for her.

PAST WEEKEND

Well, it's Wednesday already and I haven't had a chance to tell about the past weekend.  I did make it up to Columbia to see Megan.  She is doing well.  She and Brad bought a new car and it is very nice.  Got a really good deal, too.  We didn't get a chance to do much sewing, but we did get ALL of the pumpkin seeds sorted and ironed onto the blocks.  Now all if have to do is applique all 168 seeds to the blocks.  I started Monday night and got 7 of them finished.  I don't think it will take all that long to complete them if I am persistent and stick with it (ha ha).  I may actually finish a quilt top soon.  I do have a lot of binding to do, soooo, hopefully soon I'll get caught up.  We tried to make an "easy" flannel baby blanket, but unfortunately due to my cutting and not understanding the directions, it did not turn out the way it should have.  I brought the flannel home with me and tonight I have a date with Jack the Ripper so we can start over!!  Megan will be down over the weekend and hopes I have this pattern figured out by then.

Upcoming weekend

Well, Friday is upon us and the weekend is looking promising.  The weather is warming and the snow is melting.  I'll admit, it might take a while to melt all of it, but at least we're making headway.  My weekend plan is a trip to Columbia. Nope, no sewing machine yet, but I'm going anyway.  I'm taking another batch of fabric to Megan's house - she NEEDS more fabric ...  and I NEED to get some fabric out of my house.  I'm also going to hopefully help her choose a new car. Offer moral support is more like it.   She had an unfortunate event this week that left her without a vehicle.  Fortunately, she's just fine but without wheels.  I might need to take her to Joanns or the quilt shop in Columbia.  What, are we crazy??

I finished my challenge blocks so hopefully we will be exchanging them tomorrow.  I think Megan has one more to construct, but I know she can do it by the time I get there tomrrow. 

Oh yes, I did get rid of some fabric this week and even made a little bit of extra cash.  In my CLFFF I found some polyester fabric with a plastic lining.  I posted this on the Quilting Board (now know as QB) and to my amazement people knew what this was and actually wanted to purchase it.  Three people were really glad to find that particular fabric.  Paypal is an amazing thing.  The money came in quickly and off to the post office I went!!  So now it's gone and I don't miss it at all.  So goes the old saying, "one man's trash is another man's treasure." 

My latest project, like I need another one, is the Star block of the month from the QB.  I made my first one last night.  On 2/15 the second one will be posted and hopefully it won't take me three weeks to get it finished.  I like making sampler quilts along with scrappy quilts.  They are my favorites.  My DH likes the "politically correct" quilts, meaning one pattern and coordinating fabrics.  Maybe I'll give him a few patterns to choose from and let him pick the coordinating fabrics from what we now refer to as "Katyquilters quilt shop" which is in the guest room downstairs.

Excited!!

Today was an exciting day!!  I bought Megan a new (used) sewing machine. Yesterday during lunch I went to a sewing center close to the office just to check if they had any used machines. No such luck.  I gave the saleslady a list of what I wanted in a machine, and she kind of said "wow, that's a lot of things for a machine, but we have this one that is $999 with all of them".  Well, that's way over my budget, so I thanked her for her time and went back to work.  When I got home there was a message from her, they just got a trade in at one of their other shops.  The trade in had everything on my list, well almost everything, so today I went back over there and purchased the machine, sight unseen!!  It's being serviced and sent to the Springfield store for me.  The price was definitely within my budget, and even if I have to buy a couple of the feet I want, it's still below what I intended to spend!!  Good day for me and even better day for Megan.  Happy early birthday Megan.    You will now be able to sew and quilt just about anything you want.  Pick a pattern for our next challenge!!

Sunday morning

Saturday has come and gone.  Yesterday morning I was overwhelmed again at the amount of fabric I actually have.  I feel it is beginning to possess me!!  Here's what my spare room looked like after shaking out more yardage, getting ready to run it through the dryer.

Will I ever get organized??

So here we go again, more and more through the dryer, then folded (neatly??).  I am realizing my system doesn't quite work, so I decided to move what is folded downstairs to our guest room.  Good thing we don't have many guests, as the bed is now full of folded fabric. More sorting going on - into colors, styles, patterns, you name it, I'm sorting it.  There's also the pile for "planned projects".  But I'm making headway.    The need to make a new pattern got the best of me so I picked these fabrics to make a "take 5" pattern for my great niece.

You can follow the progress of this quilt on my WIP (work in progress) page.

Perhaps today and the rest of the upcoming week I'll manage to get the remainder of the fabric run through the dryer and into the "sorting" system.  Wish me luck. 

MORE SNOW!!

It's snowing again!!  I came home from work early.   I HATE driving in this stuff!!  I feel the need to SEW SOMETHING!! anything, except white!! 
Tomorrow is Saturday, I am hoping to run more fabric through the dryer and pick something for a new pattern.  Time will tell, but I'll post what I decide.  Well, I think it's time for another glass of wine while I watch the very large snowflakes fall from the sky.  At least we're not having another blizzard!

More and more fabric

Which way to turn, what tub to check out next.  It's hard to decide what to do.  Let's get a system set up.  Well, that didn't last long.  There is soooo much of everything.  We are running it ALL through the dryer with 2 dryer sheets.  Seems to help get rid of the smoke smell pretty much.  At least till we actually start a project, then I think we should wash and dry what we're going to use.  We started with the fat quarters, 3 dryer loads, and moved on to baby/juvenile fabrics.  Polka dots anyone?

And this is only part of them.  Megan laid claim on the polka dots, but I think there will be enough for me to use a few yards when necessary.

We worked pretty much all day Saturday shaking and folding, but made little headway.  In fact, right now we're feeling overwhelmed and have a big headache from the smoke smell from all the shaking.  So we decided to relax with a little wine and look at patterns.  My, my, patterns for this, patterns for that - we can go shopping in our own home!!

Our very first project from the fabric - A challenge - we each picked 5 coordinating fabrics - each of us has to make 6, 12" blocks from both sets of fabrics and at the end of the designated time (which is when we both get finished) we'll exchange and have complete sets of blocks from our own fabric.  This will be the first of many challenges.  We're making a list of challenges and see where it takes us.  I think the photos of the challenge fabrics are on Megan's camera so I'm going to let her insert them here:

My Fabrics

Megan's Fabrics

Monday morning rolled around and it was back to work.  But on Tuesday came the "blizzard" so I was able to stay home not only on Tuesday, but Wednesday also.  Woo Hoo!!  Time to sort and sort and sort my fabric, by myself.  Wow!!  Fabric and more coordinating fabric.  Now my mind is racing, what to do, what to do .... I found some wonderful "breast cancer" pink fabrics so I'm sending them to stevendebbie25 from the Quiting Board.  She makes quilts to raise money for cancer research.  Here's what I sent her:  11 yards -

this is what I sent to Gigi07 from the Quilting Board - she makes quilts for cancer patients.  (13 yards)

I like the feeling I get when I know someone is going to help others with some of this fabric.  I think once I get my head wrapped around all this fabric, I want to make some children's quilts for the Linus project.

Right now I'm putting coordinating fabrics in large ziploc bags and labeling them "planned projects"  sometimes these bags will even include a pattern, possibly from a magazine.  I'll be keeping busy, that's for sure!!

My Craigslist fabulous fabric find

I am a member of quiltingboard.com, a general information board made up of quilters from all areas who post photos of their most recent quilts, sell their excess fabrics and tell about their ebay, craigslist and garage sale finds.  I've bought fat quarters recently on ebay and right now it's too cold for yard sales, (I've never found anything good at yard sales anyway), so I've been checking craigslist.  Last Thursday, I found the perfect ad:  10-15 tubs of quilting fabric sorted by color $200 - the lady was selling because she was having knee surgery and needed the cash.  I called immediately (after checking with Megan) and set up an appointment to look at it.  Best part was she was just across town, not in some small town 30 miles away.  Mike was great about taking me over there, we would need his car, just in case.  We even had to stop at O'Reilly Auto parts first to replace his burned out headlight.  We met the lady and after opening the first tub, I said to Mike, "back up the car and load this in there" - the fabric was AWESOME!!!  All very good quality quilting cotton.  Well, there were not 10-15 tubs, there were 20 tubs, and some were huge.  We could hardly fit it into his car with all the seats down.  On top of this, she had 5 complete quilt kits which she sold to me for $50 extra.

the tubs unloaded in our garage

look how neatly arrange all the fabric is - every tub looked like this - some had THREE layers.

Now I'm totally overwhelmed as I'm opening tub after tub after tub.  What are we going to do with all this?  Fortunately, Megan was on her way down for the weekend to help me out.  This is what Megan thinks of all this fabric.

Woah!!  I"m getting buried in here!!

Now for the down side of owning this much fabric - once we started unrolling the bundles, the cigarette smoke smell came out - yuck!!  not too bad, but not good.  We started running loads through the dryer with fabric softener sheets - works pretty well, but that means we have to unroll it ALL!!

We made some progress over the weekend but we have a long way to go.

There are some awesome prints and lots and lots of everything in here.  Time will tell what becomes of it all.